There is an Irish proverb that says “A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.”. Sleep is truly one of the best and effective medicine which is needed by animals, birds and humans is a sound deep sleep. In today’s time, this is the most underrated thing in human life. We are valuing it less and less by each passing day.
Why is sleep important?
Just like a machine our brain also needs rest for many physiological processes and most important for rest. But we must understand that sleep is not a passive process, our brain still functions while we are sleeping.
Another important reason to get sleep is brain plasticity (what is brain plasticity? Check it out HERE.). Sleep helps us to store what we have learned throughout the day and also helps in remembering it for the future. When people don’t get enough sleeps the health disease risks get high. From cardiovascular diseases to increase in symptoms of migraines, high blood pressure, and depression.
Also, with that, there are many theories associated with it,
Inactive theory- This theory suggests that evolution has made us like that, it is also known as adaptive theory. The inactivity at night helped the organisms in keeping them away from harm as those who were able to be inactive and quiet were able to survive more. This behavioral strategy evolved to know what we now have known as Sleep
Energy Conservation- It says that to conserve energy and restrict caloric expenditure our body needs sleep and the other thing is that at this time our body is most vulnerable to find any kind of food. This theory is connected by the inactive theory.
Researches have also shown that during sleep our metabolism falls. This leads to a reduction in caloric demand and expenditure.
Restorative Theories- This is the most believed theory from many years that we need sleep to regain or rejuvenate ourselves what we have lost in our day time. Also. it is proven in animal studies those who were sleep-deprived die in a few days and lost all immune systems. Another important thing that needs to be considered that almost in all species the growth hormone releases while sleeping.
COVID19 AND SLEEP
In this corona time sleep is one of the important weapons to boost and regulate your immune system efficiently. During sleep, your immune system discharges proteins called cytokines, some of which helps in getting better sleep. Certain cytokines need to increase when you have a disease or an infection, or when you're stressed.
Lack of sleep may diminish the production of these cytokines. that’s more, disease battling antibodies and cells are decreased during periods when you don't get enough rest. Not getting enough sleep interrupts the production of these infections battling antibodies.
Your immune system is your only chance if you are tested positive for COVID-19. In this way, your body needs rest to battle with viruses and infections (such as coronavirus and respiratory infection). Long haul absence of sleep increases your chances of getting obese, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Now, you will say, oh I get enough sleep. DO YOU? One thing that generally people are less attentive to is the quality of sleep or how deep their sleep was. We need a good balance of quantity and quality of sleep. So, what we should do to get quality sleep. We will discuss it later in this article. First, we need to learn more about sleep.
What makes you sleep?
There are two primary mechanisms which make you fall asleep
Circadian rhythm: The circadian rhythm or the biological clock helps you to maintain your sleep. Not only your sleep but also all the other functions by various environmental clues such as temperature. For example, almost each of us wakes up for a small period at 5 or 6 A.M, this is because of the circadian rhythm.
Sleep-wake homeostasis- Homeostasis means keeping things in balance. Our body also works on the same principle the more we will be awake, the more we will sleep and more deeply after the period of sleep deprivation. But at the cost of your health because of disturb daily functions.
HOW TO GET A DEEP AND GOOD SLEEP?
Now, giving you the answer to your most awaited question Tips on How to get better sleep?
One thing is performing sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene refers to the behaviors that one can do to help and promote good sleep using behavioral interventions.
Tips for better sleep:
Make a schedule:
Our body works best when it works on a fixed schedule. Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time, there can be a difference of about +/- 20 minutes. This will help you to get a sound sleep.
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” — Benjamin Franklin”
Avoid taking long naps:
Naps should not be of more than 20-25 minutes as this causes sleep deprivation which means it reduces the time of sleep for the night sleep. This is one thing which is we are doing most frequently these days but if practiced it can help you a lot.
Regular exercise
Now from the exercise here, I don’t mean only gym workouts or weightlifting. It could be a Zumba session or an aerobic session. A good long walk is also beneficial. As small as dancing for 20 minutes can help you. A good sound sleep will help you in recovery. Among the athletes' sleep deprivation has also seen in reducing carbohydrates usage that is stored for energy.
Avoid caffeine and cigarettes
Caffeine has an impact on your body for hours and also has the potential to disturb your sleep. A high amount of nicotine also causes restlessness and suppresses hormones.
Shut down light-emitting object before 40 minutes from going to sleep
Our gadgets emit blue light. Blue light suppresses the melatonin hormone secretion. To know more about it click HERE.
The last thing is to let your body decide it. Don’t play with your bodily processes. Sleep is not a habit which we have attained just a few days or years back, it has been with us for thousands of years. Our grandparents never saw the clock at midnight. No there was no such thing back at the days. These trends of streaming late-night web series are slowly killing us.
Have you never gave a thought that why the birds came back to their nests at an exact time, why animals get back to their dens, holes or wherever they live at the exact time every single day without watching any kind of a clock, it is because of our nature have woven everything perfectly for every the organism on this planet. We are the ones who must understand to live according to it instead of controlling it. Try to understand with this graph how beautifully and effectively nature has designed our sleep pattern through circadian rhythm.
 |
| credits: The sleep council |
Humans are taking too much time in understanding “DON’T PLAY WITH NATURE RULES AND PATTERNS”.
I hope this article will help you somehow. Have a good sleep.
For my blogs related to Physical education, you can visit the Physical education world
REFERENCES
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/
http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/
https://www.sleepassociation.org/
I hope after this article people will seriously think about SLEEP...
ReplyDeleteGud article...